What is a "good" amount of cycling

[swampyseifer]

bit of a strange question maybe but I was hoping to get some feedback about just how much cycling I might consider doing...once I have a bike and have learned how to ride it!

I mean, for example, I go to the gym 3 times a week...I have a set amount of time I spend on each cardio machine and how hard (the level or resistence I work against) I will work for that amount of time. This was set my a personal trainer to suit me and my abilities to ensure I dont overdo it and injure myself.

So I assume it'll be the same with the bike. What is a good amount of distance/time I should possibly be looking at on say a weekly basis? I'm just thinking really that I dont want to overdo myself...like should I perhaps drop a gym session and replace it with cycling? Or cycle on top of the gym sessions?

I mean yeah, I go on a cycle machine in the gym...and I do like 20mins or something and I'm absolutely sweating by the end of it. but I assume thats nothing like cycling for real?

And I suppose the last thing is whether cycling say a smaller distance a few times a week, is better or worse than one long cycle once a week?

Hope that all makes sense...I know I ramble a bit!

 

[MattHB]

little and often would be my advice. if when you finish you feel like you could do it all over again, do it all over again!

i started off (only 6 weeks ago) with about 30 mins on the road/trails 5 days a week, but after a very short time that was an hour, now its an hour and a half. Im amazed with how fast my body has adapted and how fit I am compared to the start with.
listen to your body and do whatever feels right. there is no wrong/right way and yes, on the road is much different from in a gym, you have wind/hills/mud/traffic to deal with.. but that only makes it MUCH more enjoyable. you also dont notice how sweaty you get, so you pay less attention to your body when you have lots of other things to take in, this makes it more enjoyable to work harder.

 

[sabian92]

To be honest as well you're probably sweating so much because you're stationary. If there's no airflow over you and you do something like that you sweat like a bugger very quickly.

 

[HLaB]

You are right cycling in a gym is nothing like cycling outdoors, just considering the sweat element ther is less air flow to keep you cool even in a well ventilated building it can't compete to the outdoors. As to a good amount of cycling it depends what your goal is small, regular cycles keep you ticking over and keep you fit but longer cycles get you fit in the first place. For me its best to do both.

 

[WychwoodTrev]

Personally I started off with 3 x 5 milers mon,wed,fri then a 20 on the sunday. Soon moved up to 3 x 10 + 30 then moved on to 3 x 15 with a 35 on a sat and anything from 30 up to 60 on a sunday depending on time. A word of warning you will get hooked its worse than drugs.
I started of at 19 stone and a 40 a day smoker I am now 14.9 stone and have packed in the fags for 7 weeks now I started this in feb this year.

 

[lukesdad]

Don t get hung up with miles, time is the most important thing for you at the moment.

How long do your Gym sessions last normally ?

Try and match those i.e hour and a half at 10 mph - one would give you 15- two 30. If you are in a hilly area AVS might be less than that so you d end up doing less miles. Thats why emphasis on time is the important factor when you re starting out.

How many times a week do you want to set aside for riding and will this increase?

If its only going to be twice a week, you really need to be looking at setting aside an hour plus. The more sessions the less time. As has been said above little and often, and as Trev has said its addictive so more time slots maybe needed to accomodate your new passion

 

[Mugshot]

Could you cycle to and from your gym sessions?

 

[swampyseifer]

Thanks for all the replies...


My gym sessions are around an hour, 30mins cardio (running, cycling) and 30 mins resistance training (weights)

I could probably cycle to the gym, its around 10miles following the car route, I have no idea if I can cut corners by going across country! Anyway, for two of my gym sessions I go during my work lunch hour, so tbh spending 30mins cycling there is going to impact how long I can gym for. Although TBH I could just gym during the day and cycle at night...

As for how often, I dont know yet. There's the weekend and two weekdays I could definately find time to do it...so shall we say 4 times a week, although I couldnt be gone longer than an hour or so on the weekdays!

Excellent Trev, keep the good work up!

 

[Mugshot]

Yeah, would cut down on gym time significantly if you are using your lunch hour. There's always commuting on the days you don't go to the gym. It's surprising how it increases your little to quite a lot when you work it out over a month.
Thats provided you don't live 60miles away from work, may want to reconsider my suggestion to bike it if that's the case

 

[lukesdad]

Sounds like you have a plan comming together, Id have one day off away from it. 2x1 hour weekdays and maybe 1x2 hour one at the weekend. Should be getting you up to 30-40 miles a week thats a good start.

 

[VamP]

The amount of cycling you do should reflect your goals. So it is quite likely that your goals will evolve as you get more exposed to cycling and discover whether it is your thing or not.

A great rule of thumb is to build your training program around your life, as doing it the other way around creates conflict

Someone already suggested commuting as a useful way to get some ''free'' cycling time. Works for me and I get around 60% of my training miles in the commute.

FWIW I started in May this year, with the intention of maybe commuting twice a week (60 miles per week), in summer only. Now I average 200 miles a week, and race so quite a departure from my initial goals. I aim to have a minimum 10 hours saddle time per week over the winter, and from spring I am building a new training programme that will up the mileage yet again.

For now, I would say just do what you can until you work out where you want to go with cycling. Revisit this again in about 6 weeks or so. Good luck.

 

[swampyseifer]

For now, I would say just do what you can until you work out where you want to go with cycling. Revisit this again in about 6 weeks or so. Good luck.

Thanks...this sounds like good advice!

sadly I cant really commute because I work in London and only live a matter of minutes from the train station (no really, I can see the train line from my living room window!)...so it would probably take me longer to get the cycle out and get ready to leave than it would to walk to the train station. As I think I've mentioned before, I just WOULDNT cycle in London...I dont trust being a pedestrian at the best of times!